It is the 20th anniversary of the public radio show "Riverwalk: Live from the Landing." The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is the front band for the radio show. Most of the shows are recorded live at the Landing, Cullum's nightclub on the River Walk level of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Cullum leads the band at the Landing, Thursday evening, May 14, 2009. Jennifer Whitney/ jwhitney@express-news.net

It is the 20th anniversary of the public radio show "Riverwalk: Live from the Landing." The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is the front band for the radio show. Most of the shows are recorded live at the Landing,

Local jazz great Jim Cullum, playing his familiar brass cornet, joins the rest of his group, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band, in a performance at the Pearl Stable to celebrate their 20th anniversary of their public radio program "Riverwalk Jazz" on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. They were playing in front of an audience during a taping for the show. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Local jazz great Jim Cullum, playing his familiar brass cornet, joins the rest of his group, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band, in a performance at the Pearl Stable to celebrate their 20th anniversary of their public

The days of the Jim Cullum Jazz Band playing The Landing, where Cullum's been a fixture for 48 years, appear over after a dispute with owner Christopher Erck.

If this sounds familiar, that's because the pair had a falling out last year, too. However, Cullum returned to The Landing just a month later after patching things up with Erck.

This time may be different.

Cullum's band has sued Erck, claiming the group was “locked out” of the club in October. Erck countered that Cullum and his band refused to perform outdoors while the club underwent extensive interior renovations. The club is on the River Walk level of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Hyatt owns the space the club occupies.

“He stopped showing up,” Erck said. So Erck terminated the agreement that spelled out the band's performance schedule. He contends the agreement called for the band to perform there through the end of next year.

Barry Snell, Cullum's lawyer, said Erck's purchase of The Landing's business from Cullum in 2009 included an assignment of the lease. The assignment states Cullum, 70, can perform at The Landing as long as his health permits, Snell said.

“I have nothing bad to say about Chris,” Cullum said. “He wants to go to a different place than I do. I'm not trying to be adversarial. It's an unpleasant situation. I'm trying to make the most of this for the music and for the guys” in the band.

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Cullum's band seeks unspecified financial damages in the breach-of-contract and fraud action. But the suit seeks to rescind the assignment of lease so the band can become the tenant again.

“He'd like to get it back and try to re-create The Landing the way it was because he doesn't think it will ever go forward under Erck,” Snell said.

Erck, for his part, is moving on. He wanted to renovate The Landing piecemeal, working around the band's schedule. With the band out of the picture, the renovation no longer has to be done gradually. He added he had legal obligations to Hyatt to fix up the club.

Erck expects the club will reopen in February, possibly under a new name and featuring different types of music.

“I think we'll change it up a bit,” said Erck, whose LinkedIn profile also lists him as owner of Swig Martini Bar, Flip Burgers and Finesilver Gallery.

Erck denied he sought to push the Jim Cullum Jazz Band out the door because the club wasn't performing well.

“It was not doing so hot (because) it has not been remodeled in more than 30 years,” he said. “It was in desperate need of a renovation and a facelift.”

But Snell said Cullum suspects Erck didn't want the band back.

“We have our own suspicions, mostly that it probably isn't making as much money as he could make with some sort of meat-market bar,” Snell said.

Asked if he wants the band back, Erck said: “I don't normally like to employ people that sue me.”

He later called back to say he would let the band play through 2012 if Cullum dropped the suit.

The lawsuit alleges Erck made many changes in the “practices and procedures of the club which alienated customers and failed to attract the kind of business The Landing has enjoyed throughout most of its existence.”

The suit was filed Friday in Bexar County District Court.

New Orleans vocalist Topsy Chapman was an occasional guest performer at The Landing and a regular performer on Cullum's “Riverwalk Jazz” public radio program, which was frequently recorded at The Landing. She was saddened to hear about Cullum no longer performing at The Landing.

“The room was very intimate,” Chapman said. “It was like you were in your house talking to people. The audience felt the same way about it. When you were performing there with the band, it was almost like you were working with a big orchestra in that room.”